

Together with a flex head future two laser process, Professor Hagan Bayley
of Oxford University's Department of Chemistry said the printed structures can carry out the
functions of tissues by creating a networks of tens of thousands connected
droplets.
"The raw material is water and what is called lipid
molecules, which protects the water and coats it. 'We add chemicals and
bio chemicals. 'This changes the water. After all we humans are made of
networks of water droplets.the printer can mimic nerves and are able to
transmit electrical signals from one side of a network to the other. ‘A droplet
network c.500 microns across with an electrically conductive pathway between
electrodes, mimicking a nerve. Despite the droplets being around five times
larger than normal living cells, researchers believe there is no reason why
they could not be made smaller.
Professor Bayley said: 'Conventional 3D
printers aren't up to the job of creating these droplet networks, so we custom
built one in our Oxford lab to do it. 'At the moment we've created networks of
up to 35,000 droplets but the size of network we can make is really only
limited by time and money.
'For our experiments we used two different
types of droplet, but there's no reason why you couldn't use 50 or more
different kinds.'Droplet network that has self-folded into a hollow ball c.400
microns across.
The unique 3D printer was built by Gabriel Villar, a DPhil student and the lead author of the paper. 3D printers could be used to make artificial human tissue to replace damaged cells, researchers say. The printers use water and lipid molecules to form thousands of connected droplets able to perform cell functions in the bodies, according to a study by Oxford University published in the journal Science.



The unique 3D printer was built by Gabriel Villar, a DPhil student and the lead author of the paper. 3D printers could be used to make artificial human tissue to replace damaged cells, researchers say. The printers use water and lipid molecules to form thousands of connected droplets able to perform cell functions in the bodies, according to a study by Oxford University published in the journal Science.

Professor Hagan Bayley
of Oxford University's Department of Chemistry says these printed 'droplet
networks'


These printed ‘droplet networks’ could be the building blocks of a new kind of technology for delivering drugs to places where they are needed and potentially one day replacing or .


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